The very recent Dublin Declaration defines Global Education as "education that enables people to reflect critically on the world and their place in it" (GENE, 2022, p. 2). This is a fundamental education in an increasingly interconnected world, where the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and war in Europe are just some of the glaring examples of the challenges humanity is called upon to interface with. Awareness of the responsibility for active participation on the part of everyone is therefore more crucial than ever (UNESCO, 2014).

The research project aims at analysing the Italian context of Universal Civil Service Abroad (Servizio Civile Universale all’estero) as a non-formal learning context from the perspective of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). The Universal Civil Service Abroad (SCU) consists of an experience aimed at young people aged between 18 and 28 years to spend a year of their life abroad collaborating in an international cooperation project managed by NGOs. The SCU programme originated as an alternative to compulsory military service for those who exercised conscientious objection and has now assumed a voluntary nature (Fabbri et al., 2017).

The choice of this context for the research is motivated by the fact that the need to better understand the potential of non-formal educational contexts as places of GCE has been noted in the literature (Le Bourdon, 2018). Furthermore, the aforementioned Dublin Declaration (GENE, 2022, p. 2) contains an explicit reference to non-formal learning contexts as potentially rich educational settings for GCE.

The research aims to investigate possible elements of “global awareness” emerging from young adults during their SCU experience abroad.

The key concept of the research is that of "global awareness" and is intentionally not rigidly defined in advance. However, this does not mean that the choice of this term does not derive from a clear positioning with respect to the research perspective. In fact, the use of the term “global awareness” instead of “global competencies” brings with it a critical perspective of GCE that looks at the object by attempting to disrupt a view exclusively linked to a dominant thought (Andreotti et al., 2019; de Sousa Santos, 2008). Moreover, the research has its theoretical basis in the pedagogy of the oppressed of Freire, which highlights the need for a humanisation process linked to the conquest of freedom that is closely interconnected with responsibility and conscientization oriented towards a process of transformation of reality (Freire, 2000). From this perspective, GCE is therefore closely linked to the individual's reflexive-critical capacity to interpret reality aimed at an action of change.

In particular, the study is oriented towards capturing the emergence of GCE elements during the SCU experience abroad in the presence of significant situations. This viewpoint is anchored in the idea of the encounter between the subject "in" and "with" the world described by Biesta (2021). The scholar describes this encounter as a "call" that the world makes to the subject by means of the situations that the subject finds himself experiencing: the perspective is that of a world seen not only as a functional instrument to fulfil the subject's desires but rather as a world that "calls" and "asks" something of the subject through life situations. The subject is clearly free to respond or not to this 'call' of the world, but according to Biesta, it is precisely in this encounter that the subject makes with the world that he or she meets and understands what it means to exist.

The research question guiding the study is: What happens to the "global awareness" of the participating young adults during the SCU experience abroad? Specifically, an attempt will be made to understand which elements of "global awareness" emerge from the participants during the experience and how these are possibly used and transformed by the participants during the experience. Considering these questions, the qualitative approach is considered the most suitable for analysis. Indeed, the aim is to attempt to capture the point of view of the young adult participants in the SCU in order to analyse how they "construct the world around them, what they are doing or what is happening to them in terms that are meaningful and that offer rich insight" (Flick, 2007, p. 10). Specifically, the Grounded Theory (GT) methodology proves to be particularly appropriate considering the focus of the investigation and the inductive conceptualisation attempt originating from data (Strauss & Corbin, 1998; Tarozzi, 2020). “Global awareness” represents the sensitising concept, i.e. the element that drives the research. Interwoven with the GT methodology, an ethnographic approach will be used in a complementary manner, particularly with regard to data collection, research strategy, approach to contexts, tools used, and the relationship with participants (Atkinson, 2015). The preferred instrument for the field approach is participant observation. The choice of other tools will be made based on the needs emerging from the fieldwork, as well as the context-related feasibility. The use of phenomenological vignettes and possible interviews with privileged interlocutors is envisaged. In addition, it is envisaged to use creative methods such as photovoice and picture books as tools to trigger reflections and group discussions. Given the choice to use the methodologies of ethnography and GT in a combined manner, the sample of participants cannot be defined in advance. However, it is assumed that around 20 young people will participate, taking into consideration at least 4 different contexts in which the SCU experience takes place. Each fieldwork period will last approximately one month, and each mission will be interspersed with a progressive data analysis consistent with the methodology adopted.

In summary, the research aims to analyse how young adults, in their encounter with the world through the SCU experience, decide or not to respond to the 'call' of the world (Biesta, 2021), i.e. the challenging and contradictory situations they experience. The attempt is to grasp how such an immersive experience allows elements of “global awareness” to emerge. A prerequisite for this research hypothesis is to look at "global awareness" as a concept that is not measurable and therefore not characterised by extremes of a continuum between a null and a complete level. The research objectives were formulated based on the analysis of existing literature (Baillie Smith et al., 2013; Krogull & Scheunpflug, 2013; Le Bourdon, 2018; Tiessen & Huish, 2014). The results of the study could contribute to enriching knowledge with respect to the GCE learning process so that more effective and informed educational proposals can be structured as well as to deepen the understanding of the activation mechanisms to the active participation of individuals. Indeed, in an increasingly interconnected world, where the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and the war in Europe are striking examples of the existence of a deep link between the global and the local context, GCE plays a crucial role. It has the task of preparing citizens to face the challenges of interdependent humanity by supporting active participation on the part of each individual (UNESCO, 2014), not only with the aim of educating citizens for an economically productive society but above all individuals who can think critically and become knowledgeable and empathetic citizens (Nussbaum, 2010).

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